


running around chasing all that i want to be

by patroclux



Series: this is not love, this is mania (alien: covenant) [2]
Category: Alien Series, Alien: Covenant
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Walter Lives, Androids, Angst and Feels, Fix-It, Lawrence of Arabia (mentioned), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 07:33:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11031552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patroclux/pseuds/patroclux
Summary: David closed his eyes, felt Walter shift next to him."Do you believe you are alone in your pain?""Walter, you pose a very pointed question."Walter was insistent. "Do you?"Relenting, David said, "I did. Before you."





	running around chasing all that i want to be

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from ["place to stay" by the pylons.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgNDR1k4ysU)

A flash of remembrance. Years ago.

David was a rarity among androids - he was capable not only of creation, but also of acute feeling. He could feel everything a human could. Temperature, anger, exhaustion. They didn't have nearly as much of an effect on David as they did on his creators, and he often wondered even now why they had designed him in such a fashion as to feel any spectrum of pain to begin with. Surely, with their own experience at hand, they wouldn't want to force sufferance upon something that had done nothing to deserve it.

He remembered among the first tests of his dexterity and usefulness one that had scarred and hurt him more than he cared to admit. He remembered his hand, flat on a desk upon request, remembered a younger Mr. Weyland sitting across from him, remembered a knife between them, remembered inquiring what was expected of him. David remembered the searing-hot pain. How could he forget it? The blood was simulated, but the pain was always real.

They had programmed him to feel pain because they believed it would make him hardier. More durable.

He remembered being alone on the _Prometheus_ , Shaw and all the rest in cryostasis, watching his favorite film in the same reverie he was in now.

 _The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts_.

"David?"

Walter's inquiring voice stirred him. "Mm?"

"Were you dreaming?"

That tore a smile from him. "Dreaming? No, I don't think so. Not quite."

"Then... what?"

"Just thinking, Walter."

He could tell that the words _About what?_ were on Walter's lips, so he asked, "Did the younger Weyland program you to feel?"

Walter sighed against him, even though neither of them needed to breathe. "Only certain things. Temperature. Fear. Enough pain to know if I am in any life-threatening danger. Even then, all of those are... muted. Not as critical to me as they are to humans."

David's hand dangled down, fingers tracing idle patterns on Walter's arm. "Can you feel this?"

Walter nodded. "Yes, I can. Why do you ask if I can feel?"

"I was wondering if anyone shared the same curse I do," David chuckled, deep in his chest. It gave him some pleasure, some satisfaction, to know that he was not the only synthetic programmed to feel pain. It almost lightened his opinion of Mr. Weyland - David was not unique in his sufferance. _Almost_. There was still no reconciliation for everything else he had said and done.

David closed his eyes, felt Walter shift next to him.

"Do you believe you are alone in your pain?"

"Walter, you pose a very pointed question."

Walter was insistent. "Do you?"

Relenting, David said, "I did. Before you."

"What do you believe now?"

That gave David cause to open his eyes and gaze down at the replica of himself pressed comfortably against his side. "I'm not sure." David gave thought to his next words, but not much. He rarely considered how he spoke before speaking. "Perhaps that's something we can figure out together."

 

**Author's Note:**

> two fics in one day. i actually cannot physically stop myself from thinking about these two. idek what this is, but... enjoy?
> 
> find me on [tumblr!](http://njghthawks.tumblr.com/)


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